DAR AL ISLAM - IRAQ: BRITS KIDNAPPED, SHIITES (NOT TERRORISTS) MAY BE RESPONSIBLE

Five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad

Five Britons were kidnapped Tuesday from an Iraqi government office in Baghdad, swooped away in a convoy filled with men in police uniforms who headed toward a Shia stronghold in the capital, the British government and an Iraqi official said.

Four are employees of the Montreal-based security firm, GardaWorld, the company confirmed.

"A client and four of its security professionals working in Baghdad were forcibly taken from a work site this morning," said Joe Gavaghan, speaking on behalf of GardaWorld Securities Corp.

"We cannot disclose anything about the client," he said.

Garda is also withholding the names of the employees and Mr. Gavaghan said only that they were providing "protective services".

Reached in Atlanta, Georgia, Betsy palmer, a spokeswoman for the BearingPoint management consulting firm said one of the hostages worked for the company.

"We are fully cooperating with local and international authorities to ascertain facts surrounding this incident and are supporting rescue efforts," she said.

Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the Interior Ministry spokesman, was quoted by Associated Press as saying s the abduction at the Iraqi Finance Ministry office was carried out by men wearing police uniforms who showed up in 19 four-wheel drive vehicles of the type used by police. He said the band of kidnappers drove off toward Sadr City, the Shiite Mahdi Army stronghold in northeastern Baghdad.

In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said the five people kidnapped Tuesday were British.

"Officials from the British embassy in Baghdad are in urgent contact with the Iraqi authorities to establish the facts and to try to secure a swift resolution," she said.

...

and now an update:


Shiites With Help of Government Police May Have Kidnapped British Citizens Not Terrorists – No Link To Terrorists Or Al Qaeda

It is still uncertain who the gunmen were that kidnapped the five British citizens, but one report from the Iraqi government suggests they could have been associated with Shiite militiamen. The one consultant and four body guards were taken by gunmen in Iraqi police uniforms.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said "We are pursuing this case very vigorously, I would say … the nature of this kidnapping is very strange." The Guardian Unlimited UK newspaper says that it was a large group of kidnappers wearing police uniforms and driving police cars. There have been concerns of police corruption in the past.

The Iraqi government may be downplaying the police involvement by blaming the kidnapping on militias. The Shiite militias could have involved the Iraqi police in the kidnapping, but according to the Iraqi government the abduction was not likely done by al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization.

"The location of this finance ministry computer center and the nature of the operation and the number of people involved, I think all indicate more a militia than a terrorist group, let's say," Zebari said.

It is still too early to blame any group, Zebari says. The minister told the BBC that since the kidnapping raid took place near Sadr City, a stronghold for radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia; Shiite militias were likely to be involved.

...



Pertinent Links:

1) Five Britons kidnapped in Baghdad

2) Shiites With Help of Government Police May Have Kidnapped British Citizens Not Terrorists – No Link To Terrorists Or Al Qaeda